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Lessons from across the pond – how fishermen in Canada are helping to save a species

A brilliant article about the work of our colleagues in Canada, working to save the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale. There is a lot we can learn from other nations also working to prevent marine animal entanglements: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-48998569 Entanglement in fishing lines and nets is a growing concern globally and is considered by many […]

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Recent entanglements and next steps in mitigating these

We’ve been a bit quiet on here for the last few weeks but that’s not because SEA haven’t been up to much – quite the opposite in fact! Our project co-ordinator has now completed her interviews with Scottish inshore creel fishermen and based on feedback from these, plans are now underway to host a disentanglement […]

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Coast to coast and sightings aplenty!

It’s been a busy few weeks travelling coast to coast from the industrial east to the wild west, but luckily the weather was (mostly) on my side. Also lucky was a bit of spare time between meetings, markets, interviews and office work to appreciate our coast and all it has to offer including stunning scenery […]

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The unusual case of the Scrabster humpback….

On Thursday 30th May the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS) team travelled north to perform a necropsy on yet another entangled whale, which was first spotted by a local fisherman floating at sea earlier in the week. This was a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae), which stranded on Scrabster beach, Caithness.     The young humpback […]

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A busy month of whale entanglements in Scottish inshore waters

In recent weeks the Scottish Entanglement Alliance (SEA) has documented three fatal whale entanglements around the coast of Scotland. 23rd April 2019 The first of these was a juvenile male humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) that washed ashore at Tyninghame near Dunbar. This animal had first been reported entangled two months earlier by a concerned fisherman, […]

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West coast entanglement

Last week the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS, www.strandings.org), a partner in the Scottish Entanglement Alliance (SEA), received a call about another whale entanglement – this time a minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) caught in ropes off the north-west coast of Scotland. The young minke whale spotted at sea, entangled around the head and mouth. […]

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Update on the entangled Forth humpback whale, April 2019

This post was written by Ellie MacLennan, SEA project co-ordinator. On Tuesday 26th February a commercial fisherman working in the Forth contacted the Scottish Entanglement Alliance (SEA), concerned for the welfare of a humpback whale he had spotted entangled in lobster gear. British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR, a SEA partner) immediately deployed their Large […]

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‘Hauling Up Solutions’ – Scottish creel fishermen attend successful bycatch and entanglement workshop in London

Written by Ellie MacLennan, SEA project co-ordinator. Last week myself and five creel fishermen from Scotland were invited to attend ‘Hauling up Solutions’, a two-day cetacean bycatch and entanglement workshop hosted by Cefas and Defra at the Zoological Society of London. Seven net fishermen from Cornwall, as well as a host of scientists and researchers, government […]

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How do you train to disentangle large whales?

This blog was written by Ellie MacLennan, SEA project co-ordinator and member of the UK Large Whale Disentanglement Team (LWDT). Two weeks ago the Scottish contingent of the UK Large Whale Disentanglement Team (LWDT) met in Findhorn for a three-day refresher training course. The team, established in 2007 by British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) […]

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UK entanglements – a recent article from the Natural History Museum

This article was written in collaboration with several SEA partners and highlights some of the entanglement data gathered in recent years from the Hebrides, and the impact these incidents can and do have on the local fishing community. No entanglement is deliberate and no fisherman wants to catch these animals in their gear. SEA would like to highlight […]

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